Valery PLEKHANOV: “We needed a victory. We beat a good team.”

Budivelnik coach Valery Plekhanov He shared his thoughts after beating Groningen in the FIBA ​​Europe Cup:

– Congratulations on the victory of our fans, management and our entire organization.

As I said before the match, we were disappointed that we lost to Kalev and wanted to prove that we really could do better. Today victory was just necessary, so I am happy that we got the result. I think we won a good team. The men took the field today with the right concentration, strong will, and showed appropriate aggression.

But it must be admitted that we only played two quarters of basketball today. After returning from the locker room, we soon began to think the game was over. Horrible second half in our performance where we didn’t stick to the game plan…

But as I said, the task is completed, so we will analyze all these mistakes in a good mood. I also want to note the cool atmosphere in the arena, it was a pleasure to play here.

– You are Ukrainian, but you live in Rome and play in Verola and now you will have other international tournaments. How do you deal with all this?

– You know, that’s not the main problem for us. I don’t want to complain about these, because they are unimportant. But if we talk about difficulties, then this is an experience because of the war that Russia continues to wage against us. Like the families of many of our players and club employees, my family is in Dnipro. It doesn’t allow me to concentrate 100% on basketball, so I’m really grateful to the guys who delivered results today. We continue.

Note that the match between Groningen and Budivelnik in the 3rd round match of the FIBA ​​Europe Cup ended with the Ukrainian club winning 74:61.